June 21, 2016

England and Wales


Quick recap of our relatively impromptu trip to the UK...

We flew over and immediately headed away from London, spending the first 5 nights in B&Bs. Our road trip route took us to Windsor, Bath, Brecon Beacons National Park, Snowdonia National Park, Conwy, Chester, and then back to London. Then we dropped off the car at Heathrow and spent the last 3 days in the city.


Some bullet points and then photos...

1. There is a direct flight from Salt Lake City to London.

2. Driving in the UK is crazy! Andrea gets 1000000 bonus points for handling the left-handed stick shift on the narrow, windy country roads in Wales. I don't drive a stick so she handled the driving and I was the measly navigator.

3. It rained every day (except the last day, when we left... of course).

4. We somehow run slower at sea level.

5. English breakfast and Welsh breakfast are remarkably similar :-)

6. The selection of hard cider was wonderful. Even better than a Whole Foods in California!

7. Walking on walls of castle towns is cool.

8. Westminister Abbey is essentially a graveyard.

These are my photos and maybe Andrea will post her set later this week...


Running in Windsor



Bath




Brecon Beacons (Pen y Fan)




First time using a selfie-stick. Nailed it!



Dolgellau. Our favorite town in Wales.



This was our favorite of the B and Bs


They serve beer at cellar temperature in Britain. I can't say I'm a huge fan of that practice, but when in Rome...


Umbrella hiking in Snowdonia





Betws-y-Coed


Conwy, where you can walk on the walls that surround the town





This place was great...


#1 Fan of UK food


The standard English/Welsh breakfast


 North coast of Wales




Chester Cathedral - we really enjoyed this tour




Chester


Benjamin



Westminister Abbey




On the last night in London we saw the Lion King!

June 8, 2016

Final Turns of the 15-16 Ski Season (Century Club!)

Panoramic from Red Stack - Andrea looking down Little Cottonwood Canyon. White Pine to the left, Gad Valley to the right.

This past weekend (June 4-5) wrapped up the 2015-2015 ski season for us. We could get in some more days on snow, but we're headed to Europe in a couple days! I got in 100 days, while Andrea skied 76 days. It was a hell of a season!

Now things are about to get busy... Europe, Wedding, Europe again... I'm destined to fall way behind on the blog over the next two months. Instagram will probably be the place to follow along on our non-skiing adventures for a while.

Some thoughts that I'm copying and pasting from my running log, and then pictures...

I think we took advantage of just about every flake of snow we possibly could have this year: Lots of Wasatch powder days. Road trips to Sun Valley, Jackson, and Aspen. Spring/Summer chuting. Explored new terrain and re-visited old favorites. Crossed a few items off the bucket list, and added plenty more. Chasing 100 days might seem silly in some ways, but 100 days on skis is 100 days in the mountains, sliding around on snow... and I don't know how you can really top that.

Last winter my excitement for skiing was renewed, but this year it really became my primary passion again and I just loved it. I've already been thinking about the places I want to ski next year - Uintas, La Sals, Rubys, etc. There are so many places to explore and enjoy, even right in the Central Wasatch, that we haven't scratched the surface on yet.

Saturday June 4th

Snowbird's forbidden fruit - Pipeline Couloir followed by Red Stack's NE face.












Sunday June 5th

Two hot laps on Main Chute to finish it off!